The politics over "Firecrackers" and forgotten essence of "Diwali".

Ahead of Diwali, the politics over pollution seems to have heated up once again in the national capital. Like every year, Delhiites are expecting a spike in Air Quality Index following the festival of Diwali.

The cracker ban has led to an inevitable political row between Aam Aadmi Party and the BJP with the latter trying to paint the ruling AAP and its chief as well as Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal as anti-Hindu.

“Kejriwal, your anti-Hindu face stands exposed again. You have a problem with Diwali, not with the firecracker,” BJP politicialBagga added. 

Another BJP leader Manoj Tiwari had also filed a petition in court against the firecracker ban, stating that freedom of religion cannot be undermined by right to life. This is the petition in which surely the judge will take few minutes of class with the advocate who suggested filing such kind of petition because health is an explicit ground provided under the constitution as an exception to RIght to religion . 

The politics over firecrackers is not new just like the problem of pollution. 

The real question that emerges is that whether burning of firecrackers has anything to do with festival of “Diwali” which literally means “festive of diya”. 

There is long list highlighting the adverse impact the firecrackers have on human body.

The thick smoke generated even by the little sparklers and flowerpots can affect the respiratory tract, especially of young children. The smoke that pollutes air can make people’s condition much severe who are suffering from colds and allergies. It also causes congestion of throat and chest.

During Diwali, the levels of suspended particulate matter increase. When people are exposed to these pollutant particles, they may suffer from eye, nose, and throat related problems The air and noise pollution’s that are caused by fire crackers can affect people with disorders related to heart, respiratory and nervous system.

A lot of the pollution observed during Diwali (and not just in Delhi) can be attributed to burning of firecrackers or fireworks. Firecrackers also release toxic chemicals during combustion and makes breathing difficult. 

It was observed in the last few years (including 2022) that Delhi’s air quality deteriorated to ‘critical’ category the day after Diwali. Also, the harmful effects of burning crackers persist for several days after the festival.

When fireworks are burnt, metal salts and explosives undergo a chemical reaction that releases many toxic chemicals into the atmosphere in the form of smoke. This includes carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides — three greenhouse gases responsible for climate change.

The festival has a long history of 2500 years. Much long before any kind of firecracker was invented. 

The cracker-loving political party (or the ruling party) is less interested in firecracker (or diwali for that matter) and more of politicisation of the issue. They always try to connect the parallel lines of firecrackers (as a mechanism of celebrating the festive) and sentiments of Hindi. 

As we have been witnessing in past few decades how the festival has been commercialised at large scale. We realise the festive season when we see large billboards of corporate discounts. The festival ambience propels us to go to market and spend thriftly on clothes, gadgets and other things. For big corporates the festive season is the opportunity to extract maximum money out of your pocket. Our phone notification continuously buzzes with notification highlighting the discounts offered by our favourite platforms.

And the largest beneficiaries are not the local Indian market but Chinese and American firms

In all this capitalist mess the true essence of Diwali has lost somewhere. Diwali celebrates Rama's eventual defeat of the evil spirit Ravana, and his triumphant return to his home. We are country with the evergrowing issue of hungers, poverty, malnourishment, communalism etc. What we need is to make sure every citizen of this country has access to food and clothes. These are the true evil that we need to get rid of. 

In all the shopping and decoration of artificial light we all have forgotten the true essence of ‘Diwali’. Ruling parties for their political benefits focus only on “firecracker”. They never want to talk about the true evils subsisting in the country as this will question their poor governance model.